Edgar was born a prince of Figaro Castle along with his twin brother. After his father's death, Sabin fled the kingdom, but Edgar stayed behind believing that his father would have wanted him to, and became king. Edgar established an official alliance between Figaro and the Gestahlian Empire, while secretly helping the Returners until Kefka attacks Figaro, at which point he joins them outright. Edgar is cunning, able to keep up a facade, devoted to protecting the people in his kingdom, and chronically flirtatious with women. He is a master engineer, who creates odd and unusual weapons as a hobby.[2]

Edgar's ability is his Tools, which allow him to wield one of many machines found as items, to varying and sometimes devastating effects. Edgar can equip almost all weapons and armor.

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Edgar wears light blue armor, with white boots, and a long, blue cape, all with yellow trim. His eyes are a deep blue and his hair is in a long ponytail, kept together with two ribbons. While operating under the alias "Gerad", Edgar wears a dark blue, brown, and black palette swap of his usual outfit. Edgar dons personal protective equipment when using his various Tools in battle.

Edgar is a ladies' man. From the minute he is introduced to her, he unsuccessfully hits on Terra, and flirts with Celes upon meeting her, and apparently shows an interest in Relm before she tells him her age. In the Japanese version, he's still interested in Relm even after knowing she is young. This dialogue was toned down in the overseas releases.

Several people note that Edgar is a flirt making him a target for jokes, mostly from Locke, while his twin brother Sabin refers to his behavior towards women as an "old bad habit".

Edgar is still a king first, and ruling is his top priority. He's cunning and acts as a double-agent for the Returners while pretending to be an Imperial ally. He advises the group on strategy and tactics and is daring, as seen in the chocobo-mounted escape from Figaro and castle dive. He's committed to his responsibilities towards his subjects, protecting them as best he can and refusing to take items for free when shopkeepers offer. Edgar cares for his twin brother Sabin, having missed him during their ten year separation, but knows Sabin can take care of himself. Edgar offers personal advice to the others every so often, and speaks up in Terra's defense when Banon is harsh towards her.

Between him and Sabin in Figaro Castle, Edgar reveals he sometimes doubts his ability to live up to their father as a king, and wonders if the late king is proud of him, to which Sabin responds Edgar should not ever doubt that.

Edgar and Sabin were born as princes to the throne of Figaro. Some of their childhood is elaborated upon in the Figaro no Kekkon: Tales from Desert doujinshi written by the twins' original designer Kaori Tanaka, but the story is not considered canon to the game.

Edgar flips a coin.

When Edgar was seventeen, the Gestahlian Empire poisoned his father who died asking both of his sons rule the kingdom together. Sabin, upset at how no one cared about his father's death, but only who would become the next king, urged Edgar to run away with him, far from the castle and corrupted politics. Edgar wanted to go with his brother, but knew that abandoning the kingdom would go against his father's wishes, and decided to give his brother his freedom in trade for his own. Edgar proposed a coin toss, picking "heads" for Sabin. The coin he threw had his face on one side, and Sabin's on the other. Sabin left the kingdom unaware of the trick that had been played on him, and Edgar became the new king.

Edgar established an official friendship with the Empire, but never forgot who had his father killed and caused his brother to leave home. He secretly allied with the Returners, a resistance movement headed in the Sabre Mountains with Locke Cole as his contact.

One day, Locke brings a girl named Terra Branford to the castle and Edgar agrees to harbor her from the Empire. Imperial General Kefka Palazzo knows something is up, and comes to Figaro. Edgar lies, and Kefka sets the castle ablaze and Edgar escapes with Terra and Locke. The Chancellor of Figaro has the castle submerge under the desert.

Edgar's reaction after seeing Terra using magic.

Edgar takes Terra and Locke to the Returners' Hideout. On the way they climb Mt. Kolts and get in a struggle with Vargas, a student of the great martial arts master Duncan Harcourt. Sabin arrives to save them, and offers his help. The four meet Banon in the hideout who convinces Terra to join their cause. Banon joins Terra, Edgar and Sabin on a trip down the Lethe River to Narshe to see the recently discovered frozen esper.

On the way they fight Ultros who grabs onto Terra's ankle, forcing Sabin to save her. Sabin is thrown from the raft, and Terra, Edgar and Banon make the rest of the trip without him. Upon arrival at Narshe they sneak in through the Narshe Mines since the guards would not let Terra in. The trio meets with Arvis, a member of the Returners living in Narshe, a neutral city. Together, they try to convince the Elder of Narshe to join them, but their efforts are futile.

Kefka arrives at Narshe with an army to claim the esper for the Empire. Locke, Sabin, Cyan, Gau and Celes arrive and help defend Narshe in the Battle for the Frozen Esper. After the battle Terra reacts with the esper and turns into an esper herself, flying away. A search party is sent to look for her and on the way the party passes through Figaro where Sabin and Edgar have a chance to talk in the throne room.

The party finds Terra atop the tallest tower in Zozo where she is being cared for by the esper Ramuh who explains they need to go to Vector and free the imprisoned espers, one of them being Terra's father, Maduin. To get there they have to meet up with Setzer Gabbiani, the infamous gambler. Setzer is not willing to help them, but Celes proposes a coin toss: if she won, Setzer would offer help. Otherwise, Setzer and Celes would marry. Edgar provides a two-faced coin to guarantee Celes's victory, and even if Setzer catches onto the trick, he agrees to help. The group heads to Vector, recovers the espers, and saves Terra.

Back in Narshe the Elder joins with the Returners. An agreement is made that Terra would contact the espers to attack Vector, after which a coalition of Returners and Narshe guards would storm from the north. The plan is a success and Emperor Gestahl appears to have surrendered. At a banquet he asks Terra to convince the espers to negotiate peace and she and Locke head for Crescent Island to parley the Emperor's message. Edgar is skeptical of the Emperor, and remains in Vector to ensure he isn't lying.

Edgar seduces one of the Emperor's maids into revealing the Emperor's true plan: he wants to lure out the espers to capture them. Edgar and the others fly to Thamasa to warn Terra and Locke, but they are too late. Kefka has acquired more magicite and revives the Warring Triad and turns the Esper World into the Floating Continent.

Edgar as "Gerad".

One year after the end of the world, Figaro Castle is stuck under the desert. Edgar disguises as a thief named Gerad (ジェフ, Jefu?, lit. Jeff) and recruits the best thieves around the world to form a gang known as the Crimson Robbers who would help him get into Figaro. Celes and Sabin catch up to him in Nikeah and follow him through South Figaro and South Figaro Cave through a secret passage to the castle. Celes and Sabin follow him to the engine room where Edgar reveals his true identity. Celes and Sabin help him defeat the monster that disrupted the engine, and Edgar rejoins the two. They head to Kohlingen where they met up with Setzer, who helps them find another airship: the Falcon.

Sabin holds on a platform while Edgar examining a switch.

After felling Kefka the party must escape his collapsing tower. Edgar is saved by Sabin from being crushed by a falling girder. If Sabin was not recruited back into the party, Setzer, Celes and Edgar work together to move the large steel girder that was about to fall on Edgar out of the way. As they are moving the obstruction aside, Edgar notes his brother's absence and wishes they had him and his strength to help them.

Edgar shares his theme with Sabin, which is the background music for Figaro Castle. This leitmotif has a more sentimental reprise in "Coin Song", played during flashbacks of the two, and is reprised again in the "Ending Theme".

Young Sabin and Edgar, as drawn by Soraya Saga for the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy VI.

Before Yoshitaka Amano drew the final artwork, Edgar, Sabin, and their backstory, were designed by Kaori Tanaka (later nicknamed Soraya Saga), an artist who would go on to participate in the development of Xenogears. Two royal siblings named Rene and Roni appear in the latter game, who closely resemble Sabin and Edgar (Rene being large and muscular, Roni being a handsome man with long hair who is talented with machines, and both having blue eyes and blond hair). Soraya Saga also authored the doujinshi Figaro no Kekkon: Tales from Desert, which explores the twins' backstory, though Saga notes the story is not canon to the game.

In the beginning stages Edgar was planned as a stereotypical "sleazeball." Tanaka thought this cliched and removed that aspect of his personality. Tanaka has described Edgar's love for women stemming from having lost his mother as an infant and for his first love being an older woman—one of his father's cousins who had told Edgar to grow up to be a good man, and thus Edgar studied the art of chivalry. Ultimately, the older woman was killed in a political rivalry, and Edgar's feelings remained forever unrequited. Her spiritedness left a mark on Edgar that still influences his vision of the "ideal woman." Tanaka has described Edgar to be a little bit different from the typical "ladykiller" character because he was written by a woman.[3]

The original idea for the Tzen event in the World of Ruin was to have Sabin die if the player ran out of time while in the crumbling house. Were the player to return to Tzen with Edgar he would wander forlornly in the middle of the night, searching through the rubble in vain. However, the World of Ruin was seen as dark enough and the event was changed.[3]

If Edgar is placed at the top slot of the party, the vendors in Figaro Castle will sell items at half price. While present in the party in any other slot, vendors will still comment on his presence, but the discount will not occur.

At one point in the game, Edgar uses the alias "Gerad", this being an anagram for Edgar. As it is hard-coded, even if the player renames Edgar, he will still use Gerad as his alias.

It is possible to tackle Kefka's Tower before retrieving all the characters in the World of Ruin, but Edgar is one of three playable characters that are always available before it becomes accessible; the other two are Celes and Setzer (thus known as the "CES challenge"). It is possible to complete Kefka's Tower and finish the game with only these three characters; each of the characters must finish one of the three paths by themselves.

Terra Branford is mentioned in the Confounding Quiz in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and is said to be an actress. She is said to be dating Jeff Roni, a double reference to Edgar; Jeff is the Japanese version of his alias Gerad.